The Goblet of Fire and the Young Generation Revolution
by catchingafallingstar
Summary: Short story in four chapters. Competitor in the Tri-Wizard Tournament? Enough! Harry Potter is no longer willing to accept passively the problems that never stop appearing in his life. From now on, he will do whatever he thinks best, give it to anyone who hurts!
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1 – Recluse and Revolted**

Yesterday was Halloween and, as usually happens at Hogwarts, a day of surprises. After the choice of the three participants of the newly reinstated Tri-Wizard Tournament, a fourth name was issued by the Goblet of Fire to the surprise of (almost) everyone present at the ceremony: Harry Potter.

The timid boy, already so marked by strange and heroic facts in his life, was once again dragged into the centre of events against his will. He tried to explain to the adults organizing the tournament that he did not want to participate in, had not attempted to enter the tournament in any way and wanted them to find a way out so he did not have to participate. All in vain! The Goblet of Fire was an impartial and absolute judge on the subject, and the boy, once selected, was tied to the tournament by an unbreakable magical contract under penalty of losing his magic, or even his life.

With that huge weight on his back, it was normal for Harry Potter not to feel very happy or sociable at the moment. However, Albus Dumbledore had never expected the boy to disappear completely. Research carried out during the next day showed that the boy had not slept in his room nor had attended any classes or meals in the Great Hall. Moreover, no one had seen him since he had left the small chamber annexed to the Great Hall where the necessity of his participation in the tournament had been explained to him.

The protections in the castle and under Dumbledore's control ensured that the boy had not tried to leave school, but where would he be? Searches carried out all day by teachers, prefects, elves, portraits and ghosts proved to be all fruitless. Harry Potter had simply disappeared, and no one was able to find him. Not even his two best friends had any clue as to his whereabouts.

-o0o-

Harry Potter had suffered all sorts of fame at Hogwarts during his short stay there. From hero and prodigy (a corporal patronus at the age of thirteen!) to Salazar's heir, pursuer of Muggleborns and next Dark Lord in training, he had had everything. Again, his reputation was at a minimum two weeks after his name was selected as the fourth participant in a tournament between three schools.

In Gryffindor, his former best friend Ron Weasley told everyone who come close to him how he had been betrayed by the Boy-Who-Lived, how Potter had used black magic to include his name in the tournament, and how, upon discovering the real extent of the danger to which he had submitted himself, he had cowed and fled. Hufflepuff was shocked by the boy's pretentious meddling in a tournament intended for wizards and wizards of age, and by the damage his actions caused to the (rare) moment of glory the house deserved for Cedric Diggory's selection as Hogwarts champion. Slytherin accused Potter of having, in his quest for fame and glory, finally made a serious mistake, snatching more than he could handle. It was hard to know what the Ravenclaws thought since they kept their noses plunged in books and talked little.

Potter was still missing, despite all the efforts in his search. He had missed the Wand Weighing ceremony, and the press (in particular the famous reporter Rita Skeeter) did not spare him the perceived outrage. A series of articles raised all kinds of doubts about the boy: about his courage, his vanity, his mental health, his real participation in Voldemort's defeat and even his masculinity.

However, the selection and subsequent disappearance of Harry Potter were not the only changes occurring in the school. Another change, more subtle and involving a smaller number of people, was gradually being noticed by those involved, and brought much joy to the more suffering and persecuted portion of the students.

Luna Lovegood, for example, was the most gentle and kind girl you could ever meet. Even so, she was continually suffering from abuse just because she was a bit eccentric. With a great power of observation, she became the first to notice this other subtle change that Hogwarts was going through. It was easy for her, she was a daily victim of treacherous and malicious pranks, and rarely found the clothes and materials she needed, so that when she managed to reach the end of a day still fully dressed and without noticing the lack of a single one of her few possessions, she decided to make a pray for the welfare and happiness of St. Potter, the patron saint of bullying victims.

Susan Bones was proof that every coin has two faces. Her development was precocious, and the breasts-fairy had been extremely generous to the sweet, timid little redhead. But her well-developed body incited envy of other girls, and a sick obsession of certain boys. Susan found herself obliged to dress in a way that minimized her curves, and shut herself still more in her shell, to avoid the excessive and undesirable attention that her beauty attracted. Still, she still had to (almost literally) struggle to dodge the harassment of the most daring boys ... until these boys, through a series of small, incomprehensible accidents, decided that the pursuit of the gorgeous redhead was a bit too dangerous.

Tracy Davis was, in a way, an anomaly: a half-blood in Slytherin. And her roommates would not let her forget. Only her friendship with Daphne Greengrass, the heiress of a powerful, pureblood family, had saved the witty Tracy from being abused. The problem is that her friend Daphne was now experiencing problems similar to that of Miss Bones, to the point that many of the older students, hitherto kept aloof for fear of the possible consequences of bothering the powerful Greengrass family, began to wonder if the benefits would not outweigh the risks. By some strange but fortunate reason, the most exacerbated among them were in need of the regular help of Madame Pomfrey, and the pressure on the two girls diminished considerably.

These are just a few examples. The truth is that there was a lot of violence, both physical and verbal, occurring at Hogwarts for the most trivial reasons: boys abusing girls, the older abusing the younger, the stronger the weaker, the richer the poorer, the purebloods anyone not so pure, the most beautiful mocking the less beautiful ... Any difference between two people (and they always existed) could become motive for one of them trying to humiliate the other.

-o0o-

Finally the day of the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament had arrived.

Albus Dumbledore was almost in panic. Harry Potter was still missing, and only he knew the importance of that boy to the magical world in events yet to come. No trace, no clue as to where the boy might be hiding. If he did not take part in the event, everything would be lost, all his plans would vanish, and Voldemort would have an open road to impose his rule on the magical world. Even if the boy appeared, but unprepared, anguished, and not knowing what to expect of that trial, he would be in serious danger of not surviving, and the situation would be equally catastrophic.

Walking along with the other Tournament judges to the champions' tent, Albus' hopes were at an all-time low. Inside the castle and all the way to the stadium he had arranged all the elements at his disposal to try to locate the boy, again without success. No wonder the old mage was unable to hide his surprise as he entered the champions' tent. There, isolated in a corner, was the cause of all his worries: Harry Potter had finally reappeared!

"Harry, my boy, how good to see you!" said the headmaster to the boy, but he received no response and could not proceed because Ludo Bagman was already beginning the process of assigning the dragons to each competitor.

Harry, the last to choose, did not even bother to approach Bagman.

"Okay, number four and the Hungarian Horntail. You can keep your little toy," he said, returning to the back of the tent, placing as many people between him and Dumbledore as possible.

'He hates me for having to take part in the contest,' thought Albus. 'He must be thinking that I did not want to help him. But at least he's here now and I'll have a chance to persuade him to return to normal.'

-o0o-

It was finally Harry Potter's turn to be called into the arena to be greeted by a huge boo by the vast majority of those present, poisoned by his continuing slander in the press.

The boy ignored all this disdain, walking resolutely to the judges' platform. Stopping there in front of the judges, he shouted at Mr Crouch, one of the representatives of the Ministry: "Have you reached a decision on my request?"

Crouch, visibly nervous, got up and answered loudly, "Yes, Mr Potter. At an extraordinary Wizengamot meeting this morning ..."

"WHAT?!" shouted Dumbledore, fearing for the worst.

"... it was decreed that Harry James Potter, by virtue of his selection as a participant in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, be declared emancipated ..."

"NO!" shouted Dumbledore, apoplectic.

"... and, for all intents and purposes, recognized as a complete citizen with all the resulting rights and responsibilities," concluded Crouch, taking from inside his robe some scrolls, one of them floating to the boy.

"As chief of the Wizengamot I repudiate and deny this decision!" shouted Dumbledore in a visible state of fury.

"The decision was unanimous and ratified by the Minister himself!" replied Crouch. "It's final and irrevocable."

Realizing Dumbledore's desire to continue discussing the matter, and to prevent two powerful members from debating in front of the audience, Bagman quickly interceded: "Our last competitor starts his task ... NOW!"

Harry, receiving his copy of the document, ignored the rest of the events in the gallery, returning to his initial position in front of the opening of the tent, from where he had a privileged vision of the dragon he had to face.

A loud roar of the dragon silenced them all. Harry ignored the dragon, and placed his right foot on the base of his left thigh, standing on one foot. To everyone's astonishment, he then placed his left foot on the base of his right thigh, standing there floating in the air, sitting cross-legged.

Murmurs of astonishment rose from the audience, but the boy continued to ignore the environment, closing his eyes and extending his arms ahead in extreme concentration. Seconds later, his goal for that task, the golden egg, was there in his hands, without anyone being able to imagine how or why.

The boy then returned to stand on his feet, and walked back to the judges.

"Anything else?" He asked as he drew closer.

"Harry, my boy, how did you get your egg? Could you explain?" asked Dumbledore, visibly stunned by the demonstration he had just witnessed.

"Magic," the boy replied with a small mocking smile.

"What kind of magic?" asked Madame Maxime.

"Advanced," Harry replied, his smile growing visibly.

"Boy, you're going to answer our questions correctly or you'll get zeros!" Karkaroff snorted indignantly at Potter's insolence.

"In fact, Mr Potter, we cannot properly judge your task without further detail on how you completed it," Crouch said.

"It is not my problem that the chosen judges are incompetent to understand and evaluate what they have seen," Harry replied, turning his back on the judges and walking toward the tent.

"HARRY! HANG ON! WE HAVE MUCH TO TALK!" shouted Dumbledore, hurrying to reach his irreverent and undisciplined student.

It was in vain. Arriving at the tent Dumbledore realized that Harry was not there. A quick consultation with Madame Pomfrey indicated that the boy had refused to be attended and had left immediately by the opposite entrance of the tent. A quick walk later the headmaster confirmed his fear: Harry had disappeared again and left no trace indicating where he would have gone.

Still not giving up, Dumbledore drew his wand and began casting some spells along the path to the castle, trying to discover the presence of the boy even under the protection of that wonderful invisibility cloak he had at his disposal. To his dismay, he found nothing! 'What would have happened?' he thought. 'Did Harry figure out the spells I put on the cloak to be able to locate him even when he was using it, or did he simply choose another way back to the castle?'

The director tried a little more his spells in other directions, but already discouraged by the boy's lead on him. 'He can be anywhere. How can I find him?'

-o0o-

December had reached northern Scotland, bringing even more snow and cold that year than usual. Harry Potter was still missing, not having been spotted since the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

In a small abandoned room on the fourth floor, not far from the library, a small group of girls gathered. Except for being all girls, just another trait unites them: they were all victims of abuses that recently stopped, probably because of interference from Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

Some were there for their beauty, which had drawn excessive attention from the male (and more aggressive) population of the school, as was the case with Victoria Frobisher and Astoria Greengrass. Others exactly by the opposite reason, such as Eloise Midgen or Magda Blatchey. Others by their ancestry, like Tracy Davis, Millicent Bulstrode (accused to have blood of goblin or giant origin in her ancestry) and the Carrow twins (accused to be fruit of an incestuous relation between siblings) and several Muggleborns. Others, because of being foreign (Patils and Su Li), or poor (Ginny Weasley and Morag McDougal), or simply eccentric (Luna Lovegood and Lilith Moon).

Until the first task was accomplished, these girls were simply grateful for Harry Potter's initiative in protecting them. After seeing the boy not only get away unscathed from his clash against a huge dragon, but still accomplishing the task in the shortest time and with the best demonstration of power and safety among the competitors, only to receive the smallest notes among the four, the girls now thought of two things: finding ways to repay the boy for what he had already done for them, and finding out if he could help them learn to defend themselves.

Their problem, the same of many others like the Minister and the headmaster Dumbledore, was the complete disappearance of the boy. To everyone's surprise, it was Luna Lovegood who solved the issue, and that was so simple that it shocked them all. The blonde simply wrote a message about their gratitude for the help they received, and their desire to learn more and give back as they could for that help. Each of them then signed the small missive and Luna then stood up and, addressing the empty space ahead of her, said carefully: "I have here an important message for Harry Potter. Could one of you who have protected us take this message to him?"

No sooner had the girl finished speaking when the parchment disappeared from her hand and she sat down again with her companions.

"How did you know that this would work, Luna?" Asked Hermione, the one more distressed at the boy's disappearance.

"I didn't know," Luna replied with a smile. "On the other hand, it's something so simple and easy to try, so why not?"

Before anything else could be said, the girls were astonished to see a door appearing where before there was a solid wall of stones. The door then opened slowly, and the bravest of them were soon on their feet and walking there. One voice, which Hermione and Ginny soon confirmed to be Harry's to the others, invited them in.

After passing through a small corridor, the girls faced an intriguing scenario. A pool at Hogwarts! A huge room, the three other walls made of glass, floor to ceiling. In the halfway nearest the door, the floor was covered with something that the pureblood girls thought was a soft, fluffy, gigantic white skin. The Muggleborns recognized the material as synthetic fibre, but were equally impressed with the purity of that white and the softness of that coating. On the panelling, futuristic but extremely practical and comfortable seats surrounded two large low tables covered with jars of various juices, trays of snacks, and containers with fruits.

In the farthest half from the door, a large swimming pool took up almost all the space, with a trampoline near the window opposite the door, while in the shallower part the pool was made of steps on the ground facilitating the exit. An open cupboard on one side contained a good supply of bath towels and robes, all white and very soft.

Seeing Harry's clothes lying by the door, the softness of the floor and the heat in the room, the girls began to get rid of shoes, socks, ties, robes and pullovers, putting themselves more at ease. One of them, of course it was Luna, she exaggerated a little and was just in her panties, and ran to the pool, shouting "Hold me!" to a surprised boy who was walking slowly toward the shallow end.

The ungainly girl ran and jumped on the boy, who did his best to hold Luna above the water, even at the cost of falling backwards into the water, the girl solidly clinging to him with her arms hugging his neck, and her legs around his waist.

The two ended up diving for a moment, but soon Harry managed to steady his feet on the pool floor and raise himself and his intrepid charge, only to be frightened again by the vehemence of the scolding that Hermione gave him: "Harry James Potter, save these silly hands of yours to you!"

It was only then that Harry realized that, in order for Luna not slip from her position, his hands had slipped into a soft, easy place to hold in that position, but not traditionally touched in public.

Harry immediately let go of Luna, but before he could begin to stutter an incoherent excuse (but not before he blushed like a tomato), the little blonde turned to Hermione and began to walk towards her, finger in rist, saying in a strong voice: "Hermione Jane Granger, first of all what Harry and I do together is a matter between us in which you have no right to comment. Secondly, it is obvious that Harry did not act that way on purpose; it was just a natural reaction to the situation in which I put him. Thirdly, I do not give a damn about social conventions, I like to hug and be touched by him, and you know full well that Harry is incapable of doing harm to anyone unless someone is in serious danger if he not acts. Fourth, your craze of wanting to correct and direct other people's behaviour to follow YOUR moral precepts and concepts of right and wrong is precisely the reason you have had so few real friendships in your life. You need to stop this craze immediately if you want to be accepted by others. This is not to say that you should abandon your principles or stop defending them, only that you must respect that each person has the freedom to act as he or she chooses, and the most you can do is offer polite suggestions and criticisms, but in no way require or even expect consent, do you understand?"

Duly admonished, Hermione's expression shifted from indignation and revulsion to one of submission and humiliation. Coming finally in front of Hermione, Luna hugged her tenderly, saying softly, "Hermione, you can be a fantastic person and very dear to everyone. Your heart is huge and your sense of honour, justice and loyalty is a fantastic gift. All you need to become the best friend of all of us is to trim some edges that cause conflict. I'm sure Harry realized this enormous potential too and that's why he values your friendship so much."

Still holding Luna, Hermione looked at Harry as if begging him to confirm the blonde's words, which he did with a nod and a big smile.

That uncomfortable episode ended, so the girls gave vent to their curiosity with a series of questions: "What is this place?", "Where is it?", "This is where you've been hiding?", "How did you get the egg of the dragon?" and many more.

Harry lifted a hand to pause the questions, put on a robe and brought another to Luna, who thanked him with a smile. Then he invited them all into the comfortable seats in the centre of the living room and seat at the centre of a sofa, Hermione on one side and Luna on the other, and offered to them the contents on the central tables.

"I think I'd better tell you what's been going on since Halloween then you can ask some questions," he said as the girls began to feed themselves, eager to try out many of the items they did not yet know.

"Harry," Ginny asked timidly, "would not it be better to tell your whole story since you came to Hogwarts? Hermione must have taken part in everything, and I know a little from Ron and ... you know ... but I do not think the rest of us know exactly what happened."

Luna turned to look directly into Harry's eyes and ask cautiously, "Perhaps it would be best if we could hear your whole story, Harry."

The boy's reaction made it clear that he was not very comfortable with that idea, but Hermione, with the help of the other girls, pressed and gradually overcame his resistance, though the girls had to grant it to him be vacant in some parts. He could not be as vague as he wishes with his description of his life with the Dursleys, they simply realized that something very wrong was happening there and forced him to tell at least part of what he had to endure in his years in the care of that stranger and oppressive family. It was a very emotional moment for everyone, with many tears shed, but also much support received by the boy, who greatly helped him to overcome not only the pain of telling those facts as the pain of having lived them.

"I wish ... can we agree to keep it all a secret, please?" Harry asked uncertainly, regaining some of the emotional charge he had experienced.

Luna settled the matter quickly. Picking up her wand from its position in her right ear, she swiftly took a magic oath promising to keep everything Harry and the girls in the group had discussed or would discuss as a secret, ending by asking the others, "Who's going to take the oath and who thinks it is better leave now?"

Neither of them refused taking the oath. Between curiosity, the immensity of what had been revealed so far, the certainty that much more was to come and the gratitude for the boy's effort to protect them, it would be impossible to refuse.

Harry, with Hermione's help to give a better view of the feats the shy boy insisted on minimizing, told the rest of his story from the arrival of his first Hogwarts letter on. With Hermione's constant additions of the necessary details for the girls to have a perfect understanding of everything, it was almost four hours of narrative with two stops for use of the toilets to get to the last Halloween and its unexpected inclusion in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The girls even tried to put some questions about that strange and wonderful room where they were gathered, especially when Harry created the bathrooms and modified the room a bit to make it even more comfortable, but the boy persuaded them to wait for the subject to come naturally in the history.

It was hard to keep the questions, the fury and the indignation aside at some points in his history. First-years serving detention in the Forbidden Forest? Voldemort still alive and possessing a teacher? Philosopher's Stone hidden in Hogwarts behind protections that children were able to transpose? A giant basilisk making victims at school without anyone noticing? An Animagus living for years with a magical family, spending most of his time at Hogwarts and no one suspects? The heir of an important family sent to Azkaban without trial? And none of this coming to the knowledge of neither the Ministry and its departments nor the press? And what would have happened to Dumbledore to allow all this? Were he senile, crazy, incompetent, or had he became a dictator in his own little kingdom?

But there was a lot to be told, and it was better to get all the information before thinking about how to expose or mend such a mess.

"I got a copy of the Rules of the Tournament with Mr Crouch, and I found an empty room to study the material before returning to Gryffindor," said the boy. "I knew that the general reception of the school would be at least cold, perhaps unfriendly, and I needed some time to understand the whole situation and plan what to do."

"It was good you didn't go straight to Gryffindor, Harry," said Hermione. "Ron was acting like a complete idiot, trying to convince everyone that you had cheated to enter the Tournament and betrayed your friendship completely by not revealing anything to him."

"Hermione got into a violent argument with my brother, Harry," Ginny commented. "She defended you as much as she could, but you know how most of the people around here are. Many were already prone to thinking the worst of you, and Ron's words had much effect in sustaining that position, at least at first."

"Ginny also tried to help, Harry," Hermione commented again. "As I tried to convince the Gryffindors that Ron was totally wrong, she stood outside the Common Room as much as she could, trying to warn you about what was going on before you came in unprepared."

Harry was happy with the reaction of the two girls, and expressed his gratitude by hugging one after another. Hermione was amazed, it was the first time she had seen Harry take the initiative of a caring contact. The look she exchanged with Ginny soon made the smart little redhead realize the real size of that little gesture.

It was at that moment that they realized that some of the younger girls were really tired and could not take much more. Little Amanda Becker had already succumbed to sleep, and she used Susan Bones as a pillow. Harry had to divert a thought of envy from his mind when he realized what part of Susan served as a pillow for the girl. Instead, resolved to suggest a break: "Maybe we should stop here. I can create doors leading directly to your common rooms, or I can modify this room to create beds ..."

"One bed!" replied Luna. "How about a single giant bed for all of us?"

"I don't know, Luna," Hermione said worriedly. With a quick spell she checked the time. "It's three thirty in the morning! Oh, we're fried!"

"If we go to our common rooms, we run the risk of making noise and waking someone up, and then we would have a lot to explain," said Flora Carrow.

"But if we don't go we can be punished for not respecting the curfew!" said Hermione.

"Not really," Daphne commented. "We can only be punished if we are found outside our common rooms during the curfew. Staying here or going straight from here to our quarters, in both ways we take no risks of being found out of them."

"I think we should stay here, as Luna suggested," said Susan. "Two more are just falling asleep. It will be difficult to carry them. And here we avoid waking roommates and having to answer indiscreet, and maybe malicious, questions."

"But... and our beds?" Victoria asked. "Will they not realize we didn't sleep in them?"

"I can handle this," said Harry.

And he took care of, with the help of some house elves who rolled up the beds so that they appeared to have been used. Hermione was about to start a crusade on behalf of the poor little creatures exploited by wizards and witches, but agreed (indeed, she was forced) to leave the discussion of the topic for the next morning.

Harry willed the pool area away, replacing it by a huge, eight-by-twelve-metres low bed. He then created a huge curtain separating the two rooms and helped to float the sleeping girls to the bed. When he was about to close the curtains to give the girls privacy, thinking of using one of the sofas for himself, several hands stopped him and pulled him to the bed.

Dressed only in his swimming trunks, Harry tried to occupy as little space as possible and keep himself as far away from the girls as possible. To his desperation, the poor boy was unable to convince his guests that this would be the best thing to do. He woke hours later in a veritable mess of intertwined bodies and limbs; redder than Ginny's hair; confused, feeling at once privileged and embarrassed, as if he had been admitted to Paradise completely ignoring the rules and customs of the place.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2 - Conspiracy and Subversion**

Everyone finally awake and ready for the new day, the young people gathered again in the half of the room which was a huge living room. It was visible in the eyes of the girls that they wanted to discuss everything they discovered; so Harry fed quickly as they finished their morning ablutions, and while they enjoyed their breakfast he tried to finish his story quickly. After all, it was only a few weeks since Halloween.

"After I got the copy of the regulation with Crouch, I sought a quiet place to study the rules and think about how to deal with all that burden. The regulation clearly states that only those students considered of age could participate. That's where I came up with the idea of forcing the Ministry to recognize me as an adult, or at least as an emancipated minor, or I would let the Goblet take my magic and return to the normal world. I wrote a letter to Crouch, and in it I explained that Dumbledore acted as my magical guardian and would certainly oppose my emancipation. I also explained how my guardians in the Muggle world would certainly love to get rid of me. The result you saw in the first task: Crouch got permission from the Dursleys and the Wizengamot to approve my emancipation, leaving Dumbledore out of everything ..."

"But, Harry," protested Hermione. "Dumbledore ..."

"Discussions later, Hermione," interrupted Susan. "Dumbledore is not the saint he wants everyone to think he is."

Hermione snorted indignantly, but kept quiet, letting the narrative go on.

"Another important point in the regulation is that the champions are automatically approved in the year they compete and are exempt from attending classes, doing homework or taking exams. With my participation in the Tournament confirmed by the authorities, I am automatically approved to attend the fifth year, having only to compete in all three events."

"Are not you going to attend the Yule ball, then?" Astoria asked, pouting in annoyance, which left the shy boy worried about his inability to confirm, as he was afraid to disappoint a girl so... 'Aff,' he thought, 'how can she be so irresistible without even trying? Is that what people call charm? Or is that what they call hormonal effects?'

Harry even tried to stutter an answer, but Astoria herself got him out of trouble: "The first three years cannot attend unless invited by the elders. If Harry does not want to go, we could do our own dance here, right?" she said, seeking support from the other younger girls. Receiving nods, she returned to the charge against Harry: "So, Harry, how about we make our own ball?"

"I don't know how to dance," he said gloomily, but to the general happiness of his audience he quickly added, "But it can be fun to learn ..."

"We have a deal then, we'll have a dance here. Thankfully I didn't accept Ernie's invitation," Susan replied joyfully.

"Oh, God, I promised to go with Viktor to the ball!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Krum? Viktor Krum invited you, Hermione?" asked Tracy curious.

Hermione confirmed, and it was apparent that she was now in doubt about what to do. Harry and the girls quickly convinced her to go with Krum. First, it was a unique opportunity: the company of a world-famous foreigner star seeker. Second, it was a way of displaying the creation of international friendship ties that the Tournament should facilitate. Third, it was a way for everyone to know what would happen at the ball. Fourth, it was a way to avoid suspicions that she had information about Harry, lessening the chance that Dumbledore or an officer in the Ministry would question her. Fifth, to seal the decision, Harry promised they could do a second dance on Valentine's Day, in which she could attend.

Subject settled, Harry went on with the narrative: "Well, having discovered that I could hide from everybody except for the tasks, the first question was: where? Here the answer was easy. I had access to a place no one else in Hogwarts could access: the Chamber of Secrets. This, however, brought some new questions, the main one being: how to get food? I didn't think that basilisk meat would make a good diet. On second thought, I found a possible solution: Dobby."

"Harry! Do not tell me ..." Hermione interrupted again, but Harry stopped her by raising his hand and continuing his narrative.

"Dobby is my employee now, and more importantly, my friend. Hermione, this is not the time for this discussion, but you need to learn more about the elves before you try to launch a crusade for their freedom. The subject is far more complex than a simple case of slavery, Hermione. Please, as soon as we're done, I can arrange for an elf to explain everything to you. Until then, would you do us the favour of putting that aside for now? Please?"

A little reluctant, but pressed by everyone's eyes, Hermione conceded and Harry resumed the story.

"I called for Dobby and he came to me, and we talked for a long time. I soon discovered that Winky, the elf Crouch released during the Quidditch Cup, was here, too, but in a bad state. She was distressed by her situation, and continually drunken. She didn't adapt to Hogwarts, she wanted a family. And I gave her this family, even if for the moment I am the only member of it. Her case made me wonder how many more elves were out there needing someone to give them a purpose for their lives and the connection they so badly needed. A few hours later I had the answer. Dobby and Winky circled the planet in search of these needy elves, and today I have 76 elves at my disposal, although the vast majority of them are either too young or too old to work on their normal rhythm."

"Harry, this is a fortune!" exclaimed one of the twins.

"I'll never sell any of them ... uh ..."

"Hestia, Harry. My name is Hestia Carrow. This is my sister Flora," she replied.

"Okay, sorry, I'm going to take some time to learn the names of you all," commented Harry embarrassed. "Anyway, those elves have already suffered too much, and I will ensure that from now on they are happy and well-treated. The elders were dismissed from their families simply because they were no longer as efficient as they were in the past, and the younger ones were born of elves imprisoned in abusive families and kept secret so as not to suffer the same fate as their parents. With me they will have a better destiny."

At that point Harry was surprised by a kiss on his cheek and a tight hug.

"Oh, Harry, I should have known you would never abuse the elves," said Hermione, almost in tears. "Sorry for thinking ill of you, I let my emotions cloud my reasoning."

Harry just smiled gratefully and returned to the point: "Well, I had then a safe place to stay and an army of elves ready to help me with whatever I needed. Rather than decide everything by myself, I talked to the elves, and we came up with a list of priorities. The basilisk carcass and three discarded skins were sold, except for some items they advised me to keep. With that, we got more than four million galleons ..."

The girls were shocked to hear that sum, especially those created in the wizarding world that had a better sense of the (small) size of magical economy. Harry wanted to share the money among the victims, and was severely scolded for his excessive generosity. In the end, a prize of one hundred thousand galleons each was agreed for Colin, Justin, Hermione, Penelope and Ginny, with Harry saving the rest for himself and for the future fight against Voldemort. Hermione and Ginny immediately tried to revert their rewards to the boy, but were persuaded to accept and keep the money, at least for now.

"Among all those elves there was an immense range of knowledge and expertise that I could use. We did a thorough investigation of the Chamber, and we discovered some additional secrets there. I will tell you the details later. Two of them have great knowledge in healing magic, and at least six are excellent in potions. They are helping me to leave behind all the evil caused by my ... by the Dursleys and my adventures here at Hogwarts. I started to exercise, and a potion regime is helping me reach the point where my normal growth should be. The elves also found various spells placed on me and my things. Nothing very serious, but still worrying: spells of locating and listening; monitors for health and emotional state; redirection of correspondence, things like that, except for one of them that I'll leave to the end."

"Nothing serious, Harry?" said Susan, who stood up and paced back and forth, agitated. "Your whole story is a succession of crimes and more crimes committed against a minor who is heir and sole member of an important magical family!"

Harry got up too, and, intercepting the redhead's path, hugged her tenderly.

"Thank you, Susan, your empathy means a lot to me," he said after the girl had calmed down a bit. Harry then tried to return to his seat, finding that Susan was still holding his hand. The girl then smiled marvellously, knocked him down on the couch and settled herself sitting across his lap. Looking straight into the boy's eyes, she flatly stated, "You're not alone anymore, and you will not accept this kind of treatment from anyone else, do you hear me? We will take care of you. We will rid you of all this mess where you got yourself and we will make those responsible receive the punishment they deserve."

"Uh ... thank you, Susan ... thank you, all of you ..." replied Harry again embarrassed. The poor boy was really lost on what to do. He had one of the most coveted girls in school sitting on his lap and did not know what to do with his hands, or maybe he knew but he didn't think it was convenient, or maybe not ... He was really confused. And excited. His heart was pounding; his breath short and quick, and a strange heat was traversing parts of his body cyclically. Having so many people expressing friendship and affection for him was a whole new experience. Having so many nice girls around him was intimidating. He had always longed for friends his own age, why would he have so far contented himself with only Hermione and Ronald? It was strange that he had not tried to get close to more people. Had there been any motive, some manipulation up to?

"Harry!" Susan called, bringing the boy back to reality. "I will not break if you gently hug my waist," she said, taking the boy's hands, which floated in the air in the uncertainty of where to land, and making him hold her lightly.

Once again the boy felt himself blushing. To try to escape his insecurities, Harry resumed the story, trying to avoid drawing attention to his embarrassment: "Well, getting back to the subject, uh... With so many elves at my disposal begging me to get them something to do, I was inventing some tasks. We had to compromise with the Hogwarts elves to prevent our activities to annoy them and from reaching Dumbledore's ears, but it was not so difficult because the Hogwarts elves here were really unhappy with several points. And one of them was exactly the abuse you've been suffering." Turning to his older friend, he said in a shaken voice, "Hermione, why did not you ever tell me anything about how most people treat you here? It's not fair that you have to bear all this burden alone."

"In my case it was just words, ugly names meant to hurt, but I've come here accustomed to it, Harry," the girl replied. "Cases like Susan or Tracy are much more serious, they were physically attacked ..."

"Yes, they are more serious ..." Harry agreed, before replying, "But this does not in any way minimize the seriousness of your case and the fact that we were both friends already..."

Hermione surprised the boy by kissing his cheek again. "We are all together now, and we will solve all these problems together! Mine, yours, theirs all ... Are you ready for your role as leader of the next magical revolution?"

"No, I'm not at all ready ..." Harry replied, "But I'm not going to stop doing whatever it takes. And maybe a revolution is just what the wizarding world needs."

Harry then resumed and ended his story. He told how he was using the elves for research, espionage, and protection against abusers. How it was an elf that made him float in the first task of the Tournament, and how was another elf that recovered the golden egg and deposited it in his hands, after yet another elf had discovered about the dragons and the nature of the task. He also told how he was learning the language and the typical magic form of the elves, without wands or spells, and how he was finally beginning to have some success in these areas. He put aside only one important fact: the discovery that Defence Professor Alastor Moody was actually an impostor. And that was only because he knew it would be very difficult for them to behave normally in his presence if they knew he was indeed a Death Eater, and that might prove dangerous if Moody suspected they knew his secret.

On the other hand, that meant he trusted them enough to reveal the way Voldemort avoided dying: horcruxes. Fulfilling his promise, he recounted the most serious that his medical examinations revealed: the presence of a fragment of Voldemort's soul hidden in his scar. It was fortunate that some of the older elves had suffered at the hands of some of the greatest adepts of black magic and necromancy and learned a little about it, enough to identify the real nature of his scar.

He also explained to them what he had learned from the elves about Legilimency and Occlumency, and was happy to find out how some of them, such as Susan, the Greengrass sisters, the Carrow twins and Luna, knew the matter well and pledged to help the others to learn. They now knew many important secrets that should be preserved at all costs. Until they were able to defend their minds against unwanted intrusions, it would be important for them to keep their contacts with Harry unknown to everyone outside that group.

It was precisely for this reason that they decided to take a break and have lunch in the Great Hall, while Harry would be waiting for them in the Room of Requirement, arranging a scheme for all the additional training they wanted and needed.

-o0o-

The fact that it was a Saturday made it a lot easier for the girls to excuse their absence so far and to prepare grounds so that their friends and acquaintances did not expect to see them much until Monday for one reason or another. The girls used empty rooms on several floors and asked the elves assigned for their protection to ask Harry to open a connecting door from the Room of Requirement to the room chosen by them. Until they mastered occlumency, Harry would keep the exact location of the Room of Requirement to himself. To preserve the appearances, they avoided showing friendship to those who, until the formation of the group, they didn't have much contact.

When they finally returned to the Room of Requirement they noticed that Harry had created a huge blackboard divided into columns. The underlined headings said 'Physical Training', 'Magic Training', 'Hogwarts', 'Dumbledore', 'Voldemort-Death Eaters', 'Magic Government' and 'Magic Society'. The following discussions began with the simplest topic: 'Physical Training'.

Except for the up-and-down stairs, Hogwarts offered nothing in terms of physical preparation. Harry used the Muggleborns' help to explain the wide variety of physical activities normally practiced in the non-magical world. Since even those coming from the non-magical world were never very adept at physical activities, it was soon agreed that they would begin slowly, with simple games in the pool or in the padded floor, until they acquired a minimum of stamina and resistance that allowed the progressive inclusion of other more stressful activities.

The topic of 'Magic Training' was also simple to solve. They would continue to be devoted to normal classes, adding to them the elf training and some normal magic lessons with Harry, which would give them some cool points he was learning as part of his preparation for the Tournament.

The topic 'Hogwarts' was the last one they discussed before dinner, and generated a lot of controversy. Among the problems with discipline and student safety, the poor quality of some teachers (Snape, Binns, Lockhart, Burbage and Trelawney received special mentions), the excessive load of some disciplines of little use (Herbology, Divination and Astronomy were cited) and the absence of major disciplines (an 'Introduction to the Wizarding World' for those from the normal world, the absence of disciplines on government, laws, customs and traditions and professional disciplines, and the absence of entire areas of magic, like Alchemy, Enchantments and Rituals), the final evaluation, agreed by all, was that the school left much to be desired.

As dinner time approached, instead of starting a new topic the children preferred to think of possible solutions to the problems raised in relation to the school. And again the conclusion shocked them all. They were not difficult to solve, as long as Dumbledore and the Board of Governors worked together and agreed to make the necessary changes. The problem was that both were not only blind to these problems, they seemed to have created some of these problems with some purpose in mind that was not at all consistent with what was best for the students. It is as if both are wishing to keep the standard of education to a minimum and working to deprive students of better and more comprehensive education!

-o0o-

Dinner ended up dividing the group, one party heading for the Great Hall, another party staying with Harry in the Room of Requirement with a new meeting scheduled for the following morning. During the end of the day the group that remained in the Room of Requirement was limited to reviewing and discussing the subjects already seen, and the giant bed was once again a success. Harry found out how some of those girls had become deprived because of the treatment they received from their peers at Hogwarts, and even from people out of school. Luna Lovegood, Eloise Midgen, the twins Carrow and Millicent Bulstrode were the most prominent cases and it was apparent how much the end of the abuse and the chance to make genuine friendships meant for them.

The next morning the group was reunited, and for two continuous hours they discussed Dumbledore's participation in all those problems. In the end, even Hermione, the headmaster's greatest advocate in that group, had to concede that her image of the old wizard was overly supportive, and that not only did he have a great deal of guilt in the whole situation as he appeared to be consciously acting to reach that specific course of events. As for why he acted that way, they could not reach a consensus. They did not know enough about Dumbledore's ideas and principles, or about the strange reasoning that had led him to put a magical baby in the care of abusive relatives and insist that he stay there every summer; or to put Hogwarts students in constant danger, whether by bullying or dangerous creatures or even the spirit of Voldemort; or to collaborate to the very poor level of education in the school ... Even a small sample of his actions as head of the Wizengamot did not inspire much sympathy. Certainly he had the power and the position to repair the error of justice committed against Sirius Black, but he had done nothing. On the other hand, his leniency and ease in forgiving heinous crimes committed by Death Eaters contrasted starkly with his lack of action in the case of Harry's godfather.

As Harry himself had pointed out, Dumbledore's strange actions were not a recent development, beginning at least on the fateful night on which his parents were murdered. If protecting Harry was so important, why not hide the fact that he had survived? Why turn him into a hero, with such exposure in the media? To think that a baby of 15 months would be able to defeat a powerful wizard as Voldemort was pathetic. It was clear to Harry that it was his mother who had made the effort that resulted in Voldemort's defeat. So why not direct the glory of the conquest to who really deserved it? Why that because she was a woman and a Muggleborn? Was it she died and Harry did not? What are the intentions behind this planned farce?

If Dumbledore, the alleged pillar of light and guardian of what the magical world had of best to offer, had not survived unharmed by the scrutiny of the children, what of the magical government? Its base was the Wizengamot, composed of wizards (and a few widowed witches when the family did not have a wizard of adequate age) with at least five generations of pure magical blood (which caused the Potters to lose their position in that institution, because the only current member of the family was half-blood) occupying a lifelong hereditary office. New families would only gain a foothold in it if any of the families in office were extinguished or "corrupted" their blood by marriage. This explained why Voldemort did not attack only Muggleborns: Malfoy, Nott, and a few other current Wizengamot members only won their seats with the extinction of some former families such as the McKinnons and Forresters.

The magic population was deceived by a false idea of democracy, only because it had the right to elect by direct vote the Minister of Magic. Because the candidates were to be mandatory members of the Wizengamot, only the pureblood ones were eligible for this important function, leaving a large portion of the population without any representative within the governmental machine.

Proposed and endorsed only by purebloods, British ensemble laws were a perfect example of a biased and unequal system, granting broad rights to the elitist portion of the population, and severe duties and limitations to all others. Magic economy itself, rigidly controlled by the government, was also an instrument of domination, placing half-bloods and Muggleborns as servants of the class of the members of the government if they should earn their bread honestly within that society.

This analysis of the situation left the whole group sad. It was obvious that changes for the better would not be achieved easily (or peacefully). Nothing less than a revolt with broad popular support and the certainty that the alternative to make concessions was the complete exclusion of the purists in a new government seemed capable of reversing the current desperate situation.

But there they came to the last topic, the 'Magic Society', and it did not take much effort for them to realize how improbable such a revolt was under the prevailing conditions. Exactly the right-wing members to press the government, the Muggleborns, were quick to abandon that society and return to live in the normal world, severing all ties with that unjust system. What remained could be summed up in a word like 'cattle': a quiet mass accepting its share in that scheme peacefully, with no hope of being able to cause any change.

"How can we change that, Harry?" Astoria asked, visibly dismayed. "You thought of something, didn't you?"

"I don't see how to change this situation ..." confessed the boy, to the despair of Astoria and several other girls. "But I will not accept this way of life, either," he added, re-establishing hope.

"What do you mean, Harry?" Hermione asked, a little apprehensively. "Do you plan to leave the wizarding world and return to the normal world?"

Hermione's question left all the other girls worried. They relied on Harry's help, the famous Boy-Who-Lived, to try to improve their outlook on life. If there was no alternative, they were willing to even attempt to change into the normal world with him, however much the idea of leaving the wizarding world would frighten them, but they were keenly hopeful not to go to such an extreme.

"I definitely plan to leave THIS magic world behind, but by no means just return to the normal world," Harry replied. "Maybe I'll leave Britain, if I find a better magical society somewhere else on the planet, but initially my idea is to simply ignore the magical world here, as if it did not exist. I do not need it. I can acquire a property, magically hide it and live there quietly, without worrying about the rest of this magical society, using the elves to get what I need and not giving a damn about all this biased legislation."

"But Harry! You could turn into a pariah, be hunted by the magical government as an enemy of the state or something!" protested Hermione.

"Let it be!" Harry replied with a shrug. "They will not find me. And even if they find out, they should not expect me to give myself to them peacefully."

"What about us, Harry?" Victoria asked shyly. "Can we go with you?"

The boy froze immediately at the question, thinking of everything it was entangled with. Half a stutter at first, he tried, as best he could, to express his ideas and all the difficulties associated.

"Uh ... you see ... as an emancipated minor I do not have to satisfy anyone ... but, on the other hand, I do not want to live alone ... it does not look very nice and I ... well, I mean ... one day I would like to start a family, you know? But it's still early ... I was thinking of disappearing after this damn tournament ... But if I disappear and stay hidden ... it would be difficult to make friends and ... and get a girlfriend that ... well, I could come to love and one day take as wife ... But that would be later, and until then ... until then I would be alone ... Well, maybe not totally alone, maybe my godfather, Sirius, wanted to live there ... but um ... it would be difficult to keep in contact with girls ... with you ... underage, subject to the dominion of your fathers or heads of the family ... I do not know, in fact I don't know what to do ... It's just an idea ..."

During the time he was talking, Harry stared into space, concentrated. When he finished, he looked around and was startled to see the girls exchanging glances as if they had discovered something important that he didn't know what it was. Moments later he was graced by a sequence of hugs and kisses, which he received in the usual way: blushing deeply.

"Harry, what about Voldemort and your scar?" Luna asked, ending the affectionate moment with a sudden drop to reality.

"I still don't know," he replied. "Of course I need to do something about it. He killed my parents and many others. And he will come back one day and start killing again. I couldn't stay hidden knowing that all of you will be in grave danger. All of Britain will be; magical or not. But he has decades of accumulated knowledge ahead of me. I need to think about how to override his advantage, and all the horcruxes he might have done... It's all so complicated!"

"Right now he's just a homunculus, isn't he?" asked Daphne. "Maybe we should focus on making sure he stays like this for a long time, and take that time to hunt these horcruxes. If we destroy them all, perhaps he will simply cease to exist, and we will not have to worry about how to overcome him in combat."

"Great idea!" exclaimed Hermione. "I can prepare a timeline for the research, and centralize the information we find ... I mean, if you will let me."

Harry kissed her friend's forehead before commenting, "I accept all the help I can get, I think you're the perfect choice to coordinate efforts, and I'm proud of your attitude of seeking acceptance from everyone rather than simply assuming it should be that way and that's it."

Hermione was a little light-hearted, but she was happy knowing that everyone understood how difficult it was for her to give up certain old habits, and took the opportunity to apologize for the times in the past when she had acted impulsively and put herself in control of everything, and also in advance at times in the future where she could inadvertently repeat this behaviour. The girls accepted the apologies with grace, and assured her that she would be excused for future transgressions... after due punishment!

Taking a deep breath, Millicent took the break from the conversation to return to a topic that was especially important to her: "Harry, about your idea of disappearing, if I take an oath of servitude for you ..."

"Milly!" interrupted Harry worriedly. "Why would you do something like that? I don't think it is necessary to reach such extremes. Explain your situation a little better, and what you want."

"I'm a girl, Harry, but I hardly look like one!" replied the poor girl in tears. "My future in the magic world is not at all promising! My father has already told me that he will accept the first offer he receives for me, whatever the function: concubine or ... or ... anything! To avoid this I will do anything! I can even deny my family right now..." At that moment, several girls reacted with distinct astonishment. To deny their own family was an extreme option, and would leave Milly totally helpless in the wizarding world. "... and assume some function in yours, any one, in return for your protection. I will leave the wizarding world right now, if you help me stay hidden. And I'll do anything I can for you."

"We too, Harry." Flora surprised everyone by revealing. "Our parents are currently in Azkaban, but before they were arrested they were already promising us as wives for Crabbe and Goyle. If Voldemort comes back and sets them free, they will go ahead with that plan. Even if they do not escape from prison, our great-uncle, who has taken over our guard, will fulfil their desire as soon as we lend our OWLs."

Hestia confirmed her sister's words, and added: "Our fathers are among the most cruel and faithful followers of the Dark Lord. Repudiating them will be more of a pleasure to us than a nuisance."

"To repudiate one's own family seems to be a very risky and difficult decision, valid only as a last resort, but I understand your cases and will do my best to help," Harry replied. "But how does this thing put you on protection of the Potter family?"

"Harry, you're emancipated now," Daphne explained. "With a simple visit to Gringotts you can have your access to the full assets of your family released, and be declared the head of the Potter family, since you are the last adult member of it. As head of the house, you can enter into all kinds of contracts and alliances. One such type is the vassalage contract, which I believe to be the best for this case. Milly and the twins, denying their families, would be in a position below even the Muggleborns, and could suffer all kinds of abuse with impunity. But as vassals of the Potter house, they would simply take an oath of loyalty and servitude, meaning that they would be, in return for your protection and care, willing to keep all your secrets and ready to do whatever service you require of them."

"But it's too much!" said the boy. "Cannot we trade that servitude for friendship, or just leave that part out?"

"I don't care about servitude at all, Harry," Flora replied. "I'd rather be your slave to the next Lady Goyle!"

Still, the pureblood girls discussed the matter for a few moments, and it was Susan who summed up their conclusions: "We think it is perfectly possible to change the oath of 'servitude' to 'friendship,' or even completely ignore this but it would be better to check this point before making any decision. Harry, Gringotts' goblins can clarify this point for you when you visit them to take on your possessions and title."

"Great! Tomorrow is Monday, I'll take care of these matters at Gringotts early in the morning," commented Harry.

"Can you get out of school without being noticed, Harry?" Victoria asked, worried and curious.

"Yes, it's not difficult having the right resources," Harry replied. "Do you know anyone else on the same terms as you?" He asked, addressing Milly and the twins.

"Several!" Flora replied at once. "Stephanie Rosier, Helen Rockwood, Margaret and Melanie Mulciber..."

"And Natalie Nott of the second year, and Michele McNair of the first, and Danielle Dolohov of the fifth," completed Hestia.

"And which of them do you think would agree to an agreement like yours?" Harry asked.

"All!" replied the twins in unison.

Harry propped his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. It was getting more and more complicated. But ... do what?

"Could you talk to them and explain this whole situation?" asked the boy.

And with that the group split; some to look for those girls, a few to help Hermione organize the necessary research, a part to think about whether they would have any chance of convincing their family to let them 'disappear' from the magical world, others to take care of homework, a small group already freed from their duties was proposing to summarize everything they had discovered or discussed while some simply demanded of Harry a tour of the Chamber of Secrets.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3 – The Revolution takes Hogwarts**

Monday was a day of many activities and some oddities at Hogwarts. Harry Potter fulfilled his word and met with the goblins in Gringotts, regained control over the family's estates, the title of head of the Potter family, and made the happy discovery that his family already possessed some properties that he could protect to use as a refuge and... home (this word brought great excitement to the boy).

Meanwhile, part of the male population at Hogwarts, still hunting for dates for the Yule Ball, was surprised to see that several girls, including some of the most beauty (and desirable), had signed the list to pass the holiday season at home, despite all the teachers' efforts to persuade them to stay.

It also caused strangeness, and even some concern, among several students and teachers to discover that several girls were forming some unconventional friendships, completely ignoring the traditional year and house restrictions.

At dinner that day another surprise. A significant fraction of the Slytherin girls simply did not show up for the meal. The head of the house, Professor Snape, investigated the matter by questioning the girls at the table and discovered, alarmed, that the missing girls were not seen since right after lunch, not having attended classes in the afternoon.

Completing a list of absentees, his surprise and agitation rose to new heights, and he rushed to warn Dumbledore about the disappearance and strange peculiarity of all those girls: they were all from families of well-known supporters (if not members) of Death Eaters and Voldemort.

Snape and Dumbledore assumed, just after dinner, the unpleasant task of contacting the families of the children involved to warn them of their disappearance. They discovered, astonished, that each of them had renegade their families, who demanded the immediate delivery of their children to them so that they could be properly 'disciplined'. Explaining that they simply disappeared inside the castle without a trace was a difficult task, received with angry and often unpublishable protests.

It was clear that the strange similarity of the situation of these girls compared to that of Harry Potter did not go unnoticed by any of the adults and almost none of the students. The few who did not admit the Boy-Who-Lived's involvement with the Slytherin case had only one argument to support their position: Harry was the quintessential Gryffindor, and he would not be involved with them. For some, like Dumbledore, it was not only certain that Harry was involved in the case, as was the case full proof of how much the boy was changed.

-o0o-

The goblins did not like the idea of using the term 'friendship' in the girls' oath. It was a somewhat too abstract term for a case in which clarity was fundamental. In their place, they suggested 'cooperation', which they thought was clearer and far less imposing than 'servitude'. That's how Harry Potter won the constant company of twelve girls from that Monday on, and one more, Luna Lovegood, on Tuesday, after she received permission from her father to join the group permanently. The girl happily made her oath, but without the need to deny her family, while the others requested and received the consent of Harry to assume the surname Potter. This change of name was magically recorded in the records of the Ministry and Hogwarts, confirming Dumbledore's fear of the girls' whereabouts.

It did not take long for the news to reach the press. Harry Potter had been severely punished for his unexpected participation in the tournament, his refusal to collaborate with the media and the Ministry and his disappearance. Now he has also been accused of the seduction and corruption of minors (aggravated by the fact that he is now considered an adult in the eyes of the law) even hinting at the possibility of kidnapping and rape of young people of pure blood. Never his image before the public had reached such low levels.

But the Boy-Who-Lived despised his fame with the press, the government, and the magical world in general, and did not even bother to know what they said. His attention was focused on subjects far more serious than the fickle popular opinion, and little by little the results were appearing.

First, his godfather, the fugitive Sirius Black, was now comfortably settled at a Potters' estate in Wales and was recovering from his long stay in Azkaban and more than a year as the number-one sought-after criminal mind in the wizarding world.

Second, Sirius had aided Harry and the elves in creating 'communication mirrors' such as the Marauders used in their time at Hogwarts, but with a few modifications. A small mirror, installed and kept hidden in the classroom, transmitted sound and image to huge screens kept in rooms created in the Chamber of Secrets, one for each discipline, allowing the insurgents to accompany the classes as if they were present.

Third, the elves were helping with their homework. Not doing it, but making sure they got to the teachers and, once corrected, returning them to the students' hands.

Fourth, the elves guarding the other champions had brought him the knowledge about the nature of the second task, and he already had a devoted group of witches searching for ways to complete it safely.

Fifth, the Marauders' map had shown where the real Moody was trapped, and the constant spying on the fake had revealed the nature of Voldemort's plan, leaving Harry very happy to find that he would only be in danger in the Third Task.

Sixth, in addition to the elves, Harry now had the company of a dedicated group of girls to help him, and the benefits of this company were many, and he did not even blush as much as before now that he had been subjected to so much mockery and flirtation.

There was still a lot to do, but they had a plan and they had each other for support. They had access to much knowledge, a part of which had been lost for centuries (in works collected or written by Salazar), another part never before accessed by humans (with the elves). The sense of progress and accomplishment was enormous, and it gave them the strength to continue on the right course with determination.

-o0o-

Although Harry did not care much about his reputation, the girls decided to act to at least raise some doubts as to the truthfulness of the accounts of The Daily Prophet. Luna was writing a series of articles, each one an interview with one of the 'disappeared' girls, explaining their real situation and the happiness in which they lived now having escaped a sad fate that would be imposed on them by their own relatives.

Perhaps if Dumbledore had had time to see The Quibbler that morning, he could have used that first article in the series to defend his position a little. But his three visitors that morning arrived before he could even have breakfast, let alone look at his correspondence.

Minister Fudge entered the office of the old mage accompanied by Lucius Malfoy, representing the concerned parents of the missing girls, and his undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, going straight to the point.

"Dumbledore! This situation cannot continue! And as you have no results to present, it is my duty as minister to intervene for the good of our society."

"And how, exactly, do you intend to find Potter and the missing girls, Cornelius?" The headmaster asked, interested in knowing which miraculous, but erroneous solution the Minister might have imagined.

"Obviously your staff is too small to handle this whole school, Albus," the Minister continued. "Take the case of Minerva, for example. Excellent teacher, for sure. But in addition she is also head of the house Gryffindor and deputy headmistress of the school. That's not right, Albus, there's no way she can handle these three functions efficiently without suffering tremendously. That is why we are here today, worried about this whole situation. Madame Umbridge has kindly agreed to take the position of deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, and will be an important link between the school and the ministry. To ensure a higher standard of safety and discipline, a detachment of twenty Aurors, half of each gender, will be at her disposal to achieve this noble goal. As she adjusts to the new post, our esteemed Mr Malfoy has agreed to lead the Aurors on a full-fledged quest for Harry Potter and those poor girls he probably ... ah ... well, you know what they're saying ..."

"Cornelius, I do not really think it necessary ..." tried to argue Dumbledore, but the minister was not willing to give the old mage a chance to try to change his opinion.

"Dumbledore, this situation has reached a limit! Your own position as headmaster of Hogwarts is being reviewed! We are not asking for your opinion, we are just communicating what we have decided to do! Your students should be right now receiving this news from the Daily Prophet of today. Consider it a courtesy on our part to be here advising you of the changes so that you will not be surprised by them in the Great Hall."

"How long do you intend to keep this interference at Hogwarts, Cornelius?" asked Dumbledore. "What will we do when time continues to pass without your squad finding the missing students?"

"Do not worry, Albus, we'll find them," Lucius replied softly, smiling at being able to strike the old beard's pride. "Of course your people are few and poorly trained for this job, but we're talking about twenty of the most experienced aurors of our force. They will do their job."

Completely ignoring Lucius' intervention, Dumbledore continued to look at the minister and demanded, "A deadline, Cornelius. Give me a deadline for this unwanted and untimely interference to end if real progress is not made."

"Well, there may always be unforeseen events, as everyone knows ..." Cornelius tried to argue, but Dumbledore categorically interrupted, "A deadline, Cornelius?"

"By the end of the school year," Cornelius conceded. "And Minerva will not be able to regain three positions next year. Two at the most, I do not care which ones."

-o0o-

That evening the group, considerably enlarged by new entrants subtly probed by the original participants, discussed the government's intervention at Hogwarts. Harry was no longer the only boy involved, eight other boys were invited and agreed to participate, including Neville, Dean, Justin and Blaise among the fourth-years. If the school was already suffering under Dumbledore's direction, outside interference could only mean more complications and less teaching quality.

The group even considered not intervening and simply letting the adults quarrel among themselves, but Harry wanted some revenge against Lucius Malfoy for his treatment of Dobby, the danger of the basilisk, and the damage he had done to Ginny. Susan immediately told them some stories she had heard from her aunt about Umbridge, and it was soon decided that the two would be considered enemies, the Aurors being spared until they committed some offense.

Their first action against the two undesirables was simple but effective. The two were presented with a very efficient Muggle substance: the itchiness powder, a powder created from the stinging hairs of the _Mucuna pruriens_ pod, and cause of a severe itching. The children were betting on how many 'Finite Incatatem' the two would throw at the powder, thinking they were victims of spells and not a mere Muggle substance until they realized the uselessness of the action. Malfoy was within range, and Padma and Amanda shared a few sickles with their bet, but no one believed that Umbridge could be so stupid and stubborn as to extrapolate the most pessimistic estimates as she did!

The group began to have fun making and applying all sorts of pranks against the two unwanted gits: shoes and underwear that diminished by two or three numbers when in use; shoes that screamed in pain each time they landed on the ground; continuous bad smell around them; food that always tasted like oatmeal no matter what it was; feathers that translated everything they wrote to Hungarian; chairs that always seemed to be made of nails; noises and insults that only the two of them could hear... The children really gave way to the point of Lucius, yet the next day, plead urgent appointments and run away from Hogwarts, leaving the stubborn Umbridge alone in front of a squadron of aurors that increasingly considered the undersecretary a case of madness.

Sirius wanted to be with the children in the Chamber participating in all that, but the children were too happy with their newly gained freedom to allow the presence of an adult among them. However, the Weasleys twins were accepted and soon the crusade against Umbridge intensified exponentially.

Hermione eventually had to take refuge permanently in the Chamber when Dumbledore tried to summon her to a meeting in his office. Fortunately, the girl had accepted a suggestion from Harry and Susan, and had written to her parents asking them to give her daughter the right to act as she understood best. After the spy mirror planted in Dumbledore's office showed the headmaster talking to Snape planning how to extract information about Harry from the girl's mind, everything the headmaster got from the girl in his office was a copy of the document, and the certainty that Hermione would not return to be seen at school so soon.

After this episode, Dumbledore and Snape were elected as new victims of the 'prank squad'. By unanimous acclamation, Draco Malfoy was also included, and the group again spent days enjoying themselves in making their lives a living hell.

-o0o-

Despite all the actions against her, Dolores Umbridge was not easily defeated. Unable to reach her main goals at school, she, in reprisal, began to make the lives of all the other students a living hell. She knew of the immediate approval clause that Potter was benefiting but was convinced that the boy would have to resume his normal student status the following year, and took advantage of her position as deputy headmaster to ensure that he and his cronies had a weakened position, and even a humiliating one, the following year.

Their actions were engendered as Ministry-sanctioned 'Educational Decrees', and they were an exercise in prejudices and elitism never before seen in the millennial magical school. The traditional emblem of the house to which the students were affiliated received a change: blue background for the purebloods, brown for the half-bloods, and yellow for Muggleborns (not that there was any left yet to be seen, but Umbridge wanted that change to be permanent). As the number of students attending the Great Hall had receded, the four tables were reorganized: one for the visiting students, one for those of pureblood, one for the half-bloods, and one (currently empty) for the Muggleborns.

The best places in the classroom, and the preference for transit through the corridors, were bestowed on the criterion of purity of blood. The same criterion was also used in meals, with the quantity and quality of the dishes served being proportional to the purity of the blood. Finally, granting of points and punishments became the prerogative of the deputy headmistress, who applied the same elitist criteria: a correct response in class gave one point to Muggleborns, three to half-bloods, and five to purebloods.

Hogwarts was not at all happy with the changes, and began to rebel against the actions of the deputy headmistress, and the headmaster's inaction, subtly and progressively, gradually taking power over the castle from the hands of Dumbledore and his new assistant and placing this power in the hands of whom the castle saw as its legitimate representative and defender.

-o0o-

Hermione had been in a difficult position but, with help from Harry and the Room of Requirement, she arranged to meet Viktor to talk. To her happy surprise, the young Bulgarian celebrity understood and supported the girl, promising to cooperate.

On Christmas morning, subscribers to The Quibbler received a special edition about the ball in honour of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Dozens of photos, to the credit of Colin Creevey, to the immense happiness of the small photographer, illustrated not only the luxury and gala of the ball, which was attended by the four champions, but also revealed to the public, for the first time, the grandeur of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, with its imposing serpent-shaped columns and gigantic statue in the background. At the foot of the penultimate page of the publication, a single picture showed the Great Hall of Hogwarts, richly ornate but almost empty of people, while the text commented on the discouragement and lack of animation of the alternative ball performed by those who had not been invited to the main event. The sadness of Albus Dumbledore and the anger of Dolores Umbridge were evident in the photograph.

-o0o-

The day of the second task of the Tournament had arrived, but none of the participants had been seen in the castle since before the ball. To everyone's surprise, the four of them emerged from nowhere seconds before the scheduled start of the event, properly dressed for the event, and circumventing the vigilance of aurors and teachers around the place.

Dumbledore could not act to approach Harry, since he had to ensure that an angry Madame Umbridge did not order the boy's arrest before the start of the task. Filch fired his little cannon, and three of the participants fell into the water, racing to reach their loved ones, while one of them simply took advantage of a reclining chair to rest and wait for events.

"Harry," Dumbledore shouted from his position in the judges' cabin, "You must take the task, or you may lose your magic!"

"The task is to get something from the lake that I would sorely miss, Albus," replied the boy, "... but there is nothing in the lake that I fear to lose!"

"Harry, your best friend ..." tried to intervene again the old wizard, to be abruptly cut off.

"None of my friends are trapped at the bottom of the lake, old man!" Harry replied irreverently.

However, before Dumbledore could retaliate again, Fleur left the lake, sore and in tears.

"Arry, Gabrielle is in the lake ... I could not ... grindylows ... they attacked ..."

"I'll get her!" Harry shouted, already running into the lake. And he kept running, and running, and running ... to the middle of the lake, to the surprise of everyone in the audience, as if the waters of the lake had solidified. There, in the centre, he stretched out his arms, and a huge rock soon materialized in his hands, helping the boy to sink quickly.

Seconds later a huge air bubble burst on the surface, and the boy emerged from it, carrying little Gabrielle on his back, the two laughing and skipping back to the shore, where Fleur waited eagerly as Madame Pomfrey healed the veela's wounds using her wand and visibly irritated by the champion's refusal to go to the medical tent.

As Harry returned to the bank, Cedric appeared a little ahead with his father Amos and Viktor with his friend Ivan. They all rushed into the medical tent, which was immediately surrounded by the Aurors by orders from Umbridge.

The public and judges waited a long time for the return of the champions so they could receive their notes until Umbridge, tired and enraged, ordered the Aurors to enter and fetch them if necessary. All they found in the tent was a sleeping Madame Pomfrey, on one of the beds reserved for the champions and their hostages.

-o0o-

On the day following the second task, The Quibbler once again portrayed, in a special edition, the ball honouring the champions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and Valentine's Day. On the penultimate page, once again a photo of the half-empty Great Hall of Hogwarts during that day's dinner was displayed, stating that this time those excluded of the ball decided not to hold a side event, perhaps disappointed with the little attention given to the first. In honour of Gabrielle, the birthday girl of the day, the ball was held this time in the Room of Requirements, decorated to imitate the Grand Hall of the Beauxbatons Palace. Again, the total absence of adults at the event and the total happiness of the participants were well noted.

The following morning, while the children were still resting from the festivities of the previous night, Madame Umbridge had a nervous breakdown when she saw the report of The Quibbler at breakfast. Deprived of sleep and rest, stressed by the useless searches of the castle, angry at her failure to find and punish those responsible for her continued misfortune, her skin irritated by a continuous itch and her body weakened by so many small but constant accidents; humiliated by having reduced the normal attendance of students in school to a mere sixty-two students, the vast majority of them Slytherins; the new humiliation stamped on The Quibbler was too much for the proud mistress, who had to be stunned by her own auror guard and taken to the Magical Hospital, where he entered for a well-deserved rest and treatment.

-o0o-

If Umbridge ended up collapsing, Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy were not in much better shape. Harry had discovered the powers that the castle had given him and used them to take from Snape the ability to score or withdraw points, and asked the castle to reverse all points awarded or withdrawn by him throughout the year. This caused Slytherin to collapse from first to last in the House Cup, and ended all the pleasure that the greasy bat of the dungeons had in chasing the students from other houses.

The albino prince of Slytherin was vampire-like, with deep circles under his eyes, dishevelled hair and robes, and a nervous tic that made him constantly look back as if he expected to be ambushed at any moment. Maybe this tic was a consequence of him really being constantly ambushed, who knows?

The departure of Umbridge and her Aurors from the castle did not improve at all the situation of the students that she had so much favoured, quite the reverse. With more free time, the group could now expand their pranks to also include these students. It was only in May that calm returned to Hogwarts, because many students in the group were absorbed in a noble purpose.

June brought the exams in the weeks immediately preceding the third task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and, much to the dismay of Dumbledore and the teachers, a considerable number of fourth-years registered for take the OWLs and sixth-years for take the NEWTs, including the famous Boy-Who-Lived, who used the excuse of the exhaustive exams to escape any approach the old headmaster tried during the exams.

It was during these attempts that Dumbledore finally realized how much he had lost of his control over the castle, which seemed to have created self-consciousness and was engaged in helping the young heir of the Potters escape his harassment. Everything seemed to be conspiring to get him lost in what had been his home for decades: stairs that were moving in the opposite direction, tapestries behind which the boy disappeared without a trace, doors that refused to open to the old magician ... nothing worked as it should!

And the worst of it is that Harry, like all his group of troublemakers who had anticipated the important examinations, had gotten good grades. Emancipated and with several OWLs assured, there would be no way to force the boy to continue his education at Hogwarts if he decided to drop out of school. But it was critical that Harry accept his fate and the guidance Dumbledore wanted to give him. The prophecy so required, for the sake of British magical society! Severus had shown him how the dark mark had strengthened in recent months. Voldemort was about to return, and time was running out quickly!

-o0o-

Despite the old headmaster's concerns, the children were not as stressed about Voldemort's possible return. They were aware of the plans of the Dark Lord, and they knew that they could handle the situation on their own, if necessary. But it was not. Susan had spoken to her Aunt Amelia, head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department, and they now counted not only with the support of this important department, but also on the unspeakable members of the Department of Mysteries whom Amelia had persuaded to help as well.

On the day of the third task, the four competitors entered the maze one at a time, following the order of their total score in the Tournament, but they didn't go deep. Meanwhile, Harry's elves intercepted and captured the false Alastor, leading him to the Chamber of Secrets, and created a breach in the shrubs that bounded the labyrinth, allowing Amelia and her companions, five unspeakables and a squadron of aurors, to enter unobtrusively and unnoticed.

Using the Tournament's cup as a portkey, the whole group, including several elves under Dobby's command, soon arrived at the graveyard where Voldemort had planned his return to a full body. The small homunculus, who was now the once mighty Dark Lord, and his assistant Peter Pettigrew were quickly captured, and a large serpent was killed on the spot, causing a strange spectacle to reveal the serpent as one of the horcruxes created by Voldemort.

Now convinced of the identity of that homunculus and the way he had avoided going to the other side, the unspeakables acted swiftly to neutralize that threat by dosing the homunculus with the Draught of Living Death.

The unspeakables soon left the place, after vanishing the rests of the Riddle family and taking with them the homunculus and the potion that they would use in the rebirth of Voldemort. Amelia then left with the Aurors and Pettigrew, assuring Harry that she would take care of cleaning up his godfather's name and properly punishing the true traitor of his family.

Finally, the four champions used the cup again to return to Hogwarts and complete that troubled and mistaken tournament with a four-way draw. So great was the turmoil that the joint arrival of the four champions caused that the public take a long time to realize that their return had ushered in a new phase of their plan.

Everywhere in the audience, small children, daughters and sons of Death Eaters or Voldemort's sympathizers, still too young to attend Hogwarts, were being quietly withdrawn to the Chamber. His siblings and cousins had been in communication with them and suggested that they adopt the same solution they had: to repudiate their families and to connect themselves with the Boy-Who-Lived.

When the first parents began to realize the disappearance of their children it was too late. Fudge had ordered the imprisonment of the four competitors 'for explanations', which made them disappear immediately.

-o0o-

In the Chamber of Secrets, as Harry proceeded to adopt the new children in his family, the real Alastor Moody had just heard the whole story of the recent events from the girls, having been rescued from his own trunk by the elves. He had just seen, with an evil expression, the chained and still unconscious Barty Crouch Jr. reacquired his normal appearance.

"Yes, you can leave it with me, I'll take the worm and give it to the DMLE," he said at the end of the story. "Luckily, there's not much hurry ... I feel a little weak after being confined these last few months. You know, it may take me a couple of hours to get there..." he added, looking maliciously at poor Barty Jr.

-o0o-

Albus Dumbledore was once again disappointed. The intervention of the Minister had caused Harry's immediate escape with the other competitors without him having had a chance to approach the boy.

And where would his friend Alastor be? He had agreed with the old Auror to keep one eye, the magical one, on young Potter, just so he could not escape so easily! Where did that wooden-legged grouch go?


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4 – The Revolution takes the Nation**

Cornelius Fudge thought he had had the worst day of his life after seeing the Tri-Wizard Tournament, a gigantic effort by his Ministry to improve public opinion about his government, end in a huge fiasco, a real farce with a tie between all the contestants, followed by the new escape from his currently biggest opponent, Harry Potter, and the disappearance of more children, daughters and sons of prestigious members of society, right under the eyes of the entire magical community.

He had to spend hours trying to minimize the facts with the local and international members of the press and to try to calm the angry parents with assurances that his government would not rest until finding and releasing the abducted children. When all his energy and patience had been long since exhausted, it was the turn of that old man in aberrant clothes to want to take his time with spurious allegations that Voldemort, duly dead for so long, could be returning! And he wanted to find Harry Potter to fight Voldemort! The same Harry Potter who had managed to dodge him, Umbridge, several teachers and twenty aurors for nine months, without anyone catching him! Let that old man do his own miracles! After all, was not he considered the greatest living wizard? The biggest of them all since Merlin? So, let him use his astonishing magic and leave him, Cornelius, alone!

But no, after the awful day he had, instead of some rest, what did he get? An even worse day!

And he did not even need to leave the house to find the world collapsing over his head! It was enough to open the Daily Prophet for this to happen. Three headlines, only three headlines on the front page, but enough to put his career in danger!

DEATH EATHER ESCAPED OF AZKABAN AND TEACHED IN HOGWARTS FOR A YEAR!

TRAITOR OF THE POTTERS RECEIVED ORDER OF MERLIN FOR PRETENDING HIS OWN DEATH!

WHO HAS THE GREATEST GUILTY ON RECENT DISASTERS: DUMBLEDORE OR FUDGE?

-o0o-

Amelia Bones had kept her word to the letter. While Fudge wasted his time trying to placate angry parents and a revolted crowd, she had filled veritaserum into Pettigrew and Crouch Jr., took their statements, recorded everything before the Wizengamot, and wasn't happier only because she couldn't find Crouch Sr. to share his son's fate. Unfortunately, Junior had confessed to murdering his father and buried the transfigured body at Hogwarts, so Amelia took pleasure in getting him a dementor's kiss.

Pettigrew's case was a bit more complex, and she would unfortunately have to wait for a trial before the Wizengamot before she could deservedly punish him. But his confession was enough to cancel the search for Sirius Black, and that day, if everything went well, Sirius would be cleared of all charges and Pettigrew would be at least occupying a cell in Azkaban, but Amelia wanted more, she wanted that worm liquidated once and for all.

-o0o-

While Sirius, now a free man, was recovering from his extended stay in Azkaban with the help of Remus, the children and the elves were quite busy. Using the Hogwarts log book and Ministry's records, they were contacting all the Muggleborns they get: not only the ones who would start next year but also the very young ones and the ones from previous years who had turned Hogwarts off or were not even contacted by the school, and even those who attended Hogwarts and returned to the non-magical world. The idea behind all this is that magic is a gift too rare and wonderful to be so easily wasted as it had been by the Ministry.

When the government discovers it, it was already too late: the children have already been incorporated into the group, their parents have moved and the magicals didn't know how to locate them. Amelia was doing a white strike on the task, and when she located someone, she ended up helping them to hide better from magical government instead of bringing them to court.

But not only the children were being probed. Sirius and Harry used the idle estates of Blacks and Potters to found two new magical villages, fully protected and out of reach of the magical government, each one of them keeper of the secret of the Fidelius charm used to hide them entirely from the undesirables. Delivered at a cost price and with comfortable financing, houses, shops and workshops began to be quickly occupied by those born in the normal world, whether they were wizards themselves or parents of magical children, and even some of mixed or purely magical origin also moved there, dissatisfied with the current government.

The British magical world undergoes a real evasion of Muggleborns and half-bloods, and didn't know how to deal with it. Workers are lacking for the simplest and least prestigious and paid functions. There is also scarcity of elves. Slowly, local democratic governments were instituted by the communities themselves to address the basic organization of each and the relationships between them, with a fair distribution of rights and duties. Seeing how even the domestic elves were entitled to join the government, Gringotts goblins were quick to open branches in the new communities and, after six centuries, some even come back to live on the surface, acquiring some of the houses offered in so favourable conditions!

When the new school year begins, Albus didn't know that the children were still there in the Castle. All he saw was a half-empty school, new registrations at the lowest level of all its history. He was desperate, unaware that Voldemort was a problem already solved and, in his desperation, he revealed in a Wizengamot meeting the existence of the prophecy and that Harry Potter is destined to face and defeat a future reborn Voldemort, demanding that all government efforts were used to find the boy.

-o0o-

Meanwhile, the search for Voldemort's horcruxes gains unexpected impulses. The children find one in the Room of Requirement when they decide to use the resources of the room to research the subject. A second horcrux is found in the Gaunts' haven by the Unspeakables as they searched the origins of the Dark Lord. And a third is found by the elves that Sirius had borrowed from Harry to clean up the Blacks' ancient home.

Despite these successes, the group still didn't know how many were left, and progress to wrest this knowledge of the homunculus had been slow. Though physically weak, Voldemort was still mentally and magically powerful; and even the weeks of sensory deprivation under the effect of the Draught of Living Death didn't diminish that power enough.

-o0o-

The situation of the government and the traditional British magical world begun to get unsustainable when Diagon Alley begun to lose its more traditional shopkeepers, including Ollivander, Malkins and Fortescue, and the village of Hogsmeade simply disappeared. There were many who wanted to rule, and no one wanted to obey, so that the government practically became a fiction that only existed on paper. Numerous decrees were proposed, voted and accepted trying to remedy the extreme situation, but no one was willing to comply with these edicts or enforce them. Which did not matter much, because no one was able to find the people who should obey them.

Albus was as worried as the Minister. He had attempted to reshape the Order of the Phoenix, but not only had he received more negatives than entrants; as also part of these entrants ended up disconnecting and disappearing in a few days. And Hogwarts was now working with less than a quarter of the expected students, barely managing to pay its bills and quickly consuming the few reserves.

Gradually, the lack of maintenance begun to be noticed: the Ministry building itself started to have problems, as well as the floo network and several other functionalities. Amelia tried one last time to save at least a little of the old society by suggesting that the government opened itself to everyone's participation, giving fair representation to each of the magical classes and species. She didn't expect much from this attempt, serving more as a pretext for her dismissal, soon accompanied by two-thirds of the corporation. The fatal blow occurred two days later, when Saint Mungos Hospital also disappeared for the non-revolutionary magical population.

-o0o-

On a Tuesday in October two Unspeakables came to Azkaban. Shortly after the brothers Lestrange were declared dead. Wednesday, they are there again, Bellatrix signed documents taking possession of the goods left by both of them and, in the afternoon, is declared dead. The next day Sirius Black and the Unspeakables were in Gringotts claiming possession of the Lestranges' vaults, but carrying only a small cup from there.

-o0o-

In the emptied Wizengamot, Dumbledore and his few allies were forced to withdraw, banished by the now-majority ultraconservative wing led by Lucius Malfoy. With the government now in his hands, Lucius became Minister, placed Norbert Nott as head of the Wizengamot, instituted the 'State of Emergency' and quickly passed laws enacting the immediate acquittal and release of all purist allies retained in Azkaban. All Muggleborns and half-bloods were declared traitors to the magic society, subject to immediate execution and total confiscation of property and assets. If the prejudice against the less pure blooded magical beings reached its maximum, nothing compared to what they wished to do against those devoid of magic: to declare them as nonhumans, and to regard them as an invading species to be hunted and exterminated freely because their high reproduction rate was causing damage to the environment and the natural balance of species.

This (previously) controversial subject was on the agenda when the session was interrupted by, which seemed to them, to be the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the London region. However, the phenomenon was not natural as they had thought at first, but caused by the Unspeakables a level below them. The Unspeakables didn't even care about the farce that had become the magical Legislature, and were occupied with something much more useful.

In possession of all of Voldemort's horcruxes and the homunculus he now inhabited, the Unspeakables had coincidentally marked for the same day the final removal of those aberrations from our world.

In the room dedicated to the study of perhaps the most mysterious of the magical artefacts, the Veil of Death, almost all members of the Department of Mysteries performed a powerful ritual to weaken the connection between the soul fragment inhabiting Harry Potter's scar and the body of the boy, who was imprisoned lying on a large rock placed in the middle of the room.

The final stage of the ritual consisted of the Unspeakables letting some of the boy's friends talk quickly with him, seeking to strengthen the bonds between the boy and this world so that Voldemort's soul fragment would abandon him without taking him along. Some promises were swiftly exchanged, and the Unspeakables did their best to ensure the privacy of the young man and the girls, but the general blush that struck the group and the goofy smile that the boy showed after the brief conversation left little doubt as to the content of it.

As soon as the girls moved away from the little hero, the Unspeakables floated the homunculus and its inanimate horcruxes, directing them toward the veil. As the objects approached the veil, the pain and suffering through which the boy passed became increasingly visible.

The ray-shaped scar, which was already quite red and clear, began to bleed profusely. Floating the homunculus and the horcruxes toward the veil, initially an easy task, began to demand more and more power from the Unspeakables, showing on the part of the objects an increasing resistance to the imminent danger.

It was then, when the wizards and witches were reaching the limit of their strength, that Harry turned his head to the direction in which his friends hugged each other, desperate in the extreme of the situation through which the boy passed. After that last look at them, Harry let out a piercing scream and used all his affection, love even, for those girls to expel the fragment of Voldemort contained in his body.

His scar opened completely, and that fragment, along with the homunculus and all the other horcruxes, suddenly ceased all resistance and rushed into the Veil at great speed. Voldemort was finally finished! But the energy accumulated during the process and suddenly released in that final act caused a great magical repercussion that put the exhausted boy and many others who accompanied him unconscious, shuddering the very bases of the building.

-o0o-

Even with all the chaos caused by the complete elimination of Voldemort, Madame Bones still received from one of the Unspeakables the signal she had been waiting for. In a few minutes her forces had taken care of all the entrances and exits of the Ministry building, subduing everyone they met along the way who did not belong to the group that had assembled in the Department of Mysteries. The fastest and most radical magic revolution of all time was completed, and it was now time to put the house in order.

Two days later Harry Potter was recovered from all the trauma he had been through, and with Madame Bones' company, elected the new Minister of Magic, and her Aurors, took full control of Hogwarts from a discouraged and weakened Dumbledore who, after discovering the full extension of events and how everything had happened without (or despite) his efforts, decided that it was time to retire and to live his remaining time in relative isolation.

Harry and his group began immediate reforms at school with such naturalness and efficiency that, to the astonishment of the boy, he found himself unexpectedly in the position of effective leader of the millennial educational institution when even teachers and members of the Education Evaluation Committee began to ask his opinion on everything. And his performance was so positive that he was formally instituted as the new headmaster soon after.

By consulting students and their parents, teachers, the Board of Directors (the new one, reorganized after the exclusion of convicted members) and the Evaluation Committee, the group reformulated the entire school: curriculum, rules and directives, punishment and award system, tuition fees, support for Muggleborns, all went through a thorough review to make the school fit to receive all magical beings, even non-humans, and to give them the most comprehensive and complete education possible. Needless to say, Binns, Trelawney and Snape were immediately considered useless to the new institution that the changes created.

Similar changes were made in magical government, with great results. A meritocracy was instituted for career positions in the Ministry, instead of the nepotism and elitism that prevailed until then, while the leadership of the Executive and the Legislative positions (Wizengamot) became elective, without any restriction as to the origin or wealth of the candidates.

More than a mere victory against the forces of evil, this time the magical society as a whole felt the energy of a complete revitalization and renewal, with rights and freedoms guaranteed for all.

-o0o-

Harry James Potter had become Hogwarts' newest headmaster of all time, at the age of 15, and finally the longest running, remaining in office until his 165th birthday when he retired to enjoy the nearly four hundreds of penta and hexa-grandchildren of his, and began to write books for children and young people from the stories he created, told and recounted to the little ones, who helped him a lot in the process.

He was never married, unable to decide for a single one of so many sensational girls he had met, but he had open relationships with many of them, and many children from these relationships, and he never failed to tell everyone that he considered himself one of the happiest human beings of all times.

 **A/N:** Thank you all for reading this little story. Hope it was entertaining. If you could, please let me know what you think of it. I'm trying to improve my writing skills, and I appreciated any and every criticism or incentive. Sorry if the lack of marriage frustrated you, I simply couldn't choose one of the girls above the others.


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